“Nanostructured materials” are those having properties defined by features smaller than 100 nm. This class of materials is interesting for the reasons: i) They include most materials, since a broad range of properties—from fracture strength to electrical conductivity—depend on nanometer-scale features. ii) They may offer new properties: The conductivity and stiffness of buckytubes, and the broad range of fluorescent emission of CdSe quantum dots are examples. iii) They can mix classical and quantum behaviors. iv) They offer a bridge between classical and biological branches of materials science. v) They suggest approaches to “materials-by-design”. Nanomaterials can, in principle, be made using both top-down and bottom-up techniques. Self-assembly bridges these two techniques and allows materials to be designed with hierarchical order and complexity that mimics those seen in biological systems. Self-assembly of nanostructured materials holds promise as a low-cost, high-yield technique with a wide range of scientific and technological applications.
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© 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc
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Whitesides, G.M., Kriebel, J.K., Mayers, B.T. (2005). Self-Assembly and Nanostructured Materials. In: Huck, W.T.S. (eds) Nanoscale Assembly. Nanostructure Science and Technology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25656-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25656-3_9
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